April 03, 2010: Christening the Party
Dramatis Personae * Mungo - shifter rogue 6 (Westerling/Brighton County) * Vitrano - deva avenger 6 (Malringer) * Bim - deva artificer 5 (Malringer?) * River - shifter warden 6 (Westerling/Brighton County) * Kava - dragonborn paladin 6 (Westerling) * Kristof - human wizard 6 (Westerling/Regis Vale) * Aria - warforged bard 6 (Westerling) * Teodahr - elf ranger 6 (Westerling) * El Sha - half elf hybrid sorcerer rogue mercenary dude (Bab El?) Taking Care of Business The party huddled in the gate house towers to recover from the battle with the automata guarding the entrance. During the rest, River spotted several somethings floating out in the darkness, but never got a very good look at it/them. When Aria came on watch, it reported that whatever the floating creatures were, they were most definately aberations. At one point, someone got a look at them and described them as a bulging brain-like body, with a beak and tentacles dangling below. Our skill with identifying abberant creatures must have improved because we were able to identify these as grell. Despite all reasonable efforts to the contrary, Bim started calling them "brainfish." Once the rest was over, the party decided that we should try to find a better place to house the mounts. A brief effort scouting revealed the stables nearby. When we looked inside, however, our senses were assaulted by the smell of rotting garbage and meat. The contents of the stables, stalls and all, had been demolished and added to a huge trash pile at the back of the room, along with numerous corpses of various vintages. Looking around, we spotted someone crouched in the rafters. He made a gesture for us to be quiet. We made one for him to come down, and so he did. Naming the Party El Sha: Did you not have the password? Vitrano: Did you not hear El Sha: I figured someone unfortunately entered the fortress or they were entering the hard way. River: With us, we pretty much do things the hard way. Kristof: Hey, that could be the name of our party: The Hard Way Bim: I'd second that name. Thus the party is finally christened. Don't Eat That! You Don't Know Where It's Been El Sha explained that he had been hired by the people of the town below to investigate the Keep, since townsfolk had started going missing. The keep had been known to be abandoned for some time. The hope of the townsfolk was that if the keep could be cleared, they could reactivate it to provide some defense. River offered to assist clearing the keep, and offered to intercede with Sir Niviar on the town's behalf, since the Westerlings would like to hold the Keep as a forward operations base. The matter was tabled until such time as the keep was clear and the both the townsfolk and Sir Niviar could be consulted. El Sha went on to inform the members of The Hard Way (THW) that there were (duh!) voracious creatures living in the pile of refuse, garbage, and carrion (yum!) at the end of the room. After a brief discussion THW decided that they should clear this room out to have a safe(er?) place to keep the mounts while they dealt with whatever else was in Vertan's Keep. THW entered the room quietly, arrayed with River, Vitrano and Kava out front, and the squishies in the back. El Sha waited near the door. Peering into the gloom we looked for some sign. Vitrano spotted some activity and in his usually impetuous fashion, sprang forward and attacked it. Four otyughs and a charnel lord (otyugh enhanced by necrotic energy from eating undead) attacked out of the trash heap, but were dispatched with little difficulty. Experience 10% Mungo finds a set of Razor Bracers Into the Darkness River decided the best way to approach the center hall is to circle it, using the Amulet of Planar Mojo to try to identify the aberrations inside and triangulate on the rift. Said plan worked until the party reached the side of the hall, where Aria suddenly detected fast aberrations closing from behind, while slow ones drifted in from the hall and out in the courtyard. The fast ones were gricks, while the slower turned out to be grell, several of which drifted out the hall windows. After a tough fight, THW retreated to the stables to rest up and revise their tactics. Experience 20% (7.25 total ?) A level 6 magic item gets a level bump. Kava's axe? March 13, 2010: One Trick Pony May 1, 2010: Session Name Here Top